Return of the GOP hawks

Given the vacuum from the libertarian wing, the hawks are driving the Iraq discussion. | AP Photos

“World events have proven Sen. McCain, myself, [Sen. Kelly] Ayotte, Rubio, other people who have been hawkish, to have been right,” Graham said. “To those who wanted to get to the left of Obama, I’m glad we didn’t take your advice.”

McCain said that Paul, Rubio and Cruz all come to him for foreign policy advice and that he’s not surprised that Republicans still lean on him for his views. McCain said his advice is still popular among Republicans because lawmakers are looking to be led by “who’s highly regarded” — and that means the two amigos.

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“We have had long experience and haven’t been wrong,” McCain said.

Asked if he believed most Republicans largely agree with his suggestions on Iraq, which range from airstrikes to ditching the president’s entire national security team, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee replied: “Oh yeah. On most national security issues they do, I think they’d tell you that.”

Even McCain and Graham can’t agree on everything, and differ on whether to include Iran in the question with Iraq (“one out of 1,000 times we may disagree on something,” McCain quipped). But otherwise both lawmakers have been boasting of their prescience on Iraq — and largely drawing plaudits from their GOP colleagues.

But libertarian-leaning lawmakers like Paul, Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have made their mark on GOP foreign policy in recent years.

McConnell joined Paul in voting to cut aid for Egypt, many Republicans rejected a strike on Syria and even Graham and McCain’s blistering criticisms of Obama thus far don’t include the suggestion that American soldiers should be charging into Mosul.

For now, the GOP’s policy is primarily led by its old guard, though there’s still worry of an isolationist rebellion.

“Our tea party wing has a worrying isolationist strain in it,” said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), one of the GOP’s point men on pushing sanctions on Iran. But Kirk admitted that for now, that strain is a small part of the conference.

New senators like Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) argue that the GOP has not strayed far from its foreign policy roots — it’s just that the hawks are louder and the Senate now has members like Paul and Cruz who embody a populist strain of GOP libertarianism that had long been absent from the Senate floor.

“The center of the party hasn’t shifted that much. There are voices that are louder than they have been on both sides,” said Scott, who wants American military deployment off the table but thinks airstrikes should be under consideration if the Obama administration can make an effective case for them.

Democrats are having a hard time dealing with the resurgence of the GOP’s hawkish wing. They see Republican statements that frequently begin with a call for political changes and end with a request for swift airstrikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as an unpleasant blast from the past that Democrats thought had been firmly defeated in the 2008 and 2012 elections.

“I’m very cautious about any moves on our part that suggest that somehow we’re going to be the solution to this,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). “There are a lot of tools. And [Republicans] seem to be comfortable with a very small number of tools.”

Even more painful for Democrats, particularly Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), is the relitigation of the 2011 decision to pull out of Iraq after bilateral talks with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fell through. He was incredulous when asked about Iraq on Tuesday — in disbelief that Republicans are questioning the logic of returning American troops from eight years of war.

“Those who attack President Obama for bringing our troops home are flat wrong for criticizing him for that,” Reid told reporters. “They’re out of step not only with the president but with the American people. After a decade of war, we’ve all had enough.”